Death of a salesman?

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A parliamentary inquiry is about to table its report on
Victoria's funeral industry. It comes as a growing number of people
ask for a greater say, and less of a hard sell, in how they
farewell the dead. Susan Henly reports.

'I WANT my funeral to be bright and happy," says 75-year-old
Jean Wright, draped in the colourful quilt she has bought to cover
the simple wooden coffin she plans to use for her funeral.

"I already have a tape of the music I want played: the Eva
Cassidy version of John Lennon's Imagine, and there's money
left over for drinks at the local RSL I will have none of
that false sincerity, the hushed tones and pious slow walk of
funeral parlour employees."

Wright, an Altona retirement home resident is showing the way to
a new kind of funeral, even though she is not planning on dying any
time soon.

There were 132,300 deaths registered in Australia in 2003. This
figure is set to rise significantly from 2015 when the first baby
boomers reach 70. This group was influential in changing birthing
practices and now are pressing for more meaningful funeral
practices.

Just as the Natural Death Movement in Britain focuses on
assisting those dying at home, and their carers, and helping people
arrange inexpensive, family-organised and environmentally friendly
funerals, similar movements are gaining ground in Australia. But it
is not easy. Funerals are both a powerful cultural legacy and,
increasingly, a corporate industry.

Pat Jalland, a professor of history at the ANU, has been
exploring Australian attitudes to death for many years. Her first
book, Australian Ways of Death: A Social and Cultural History
from 1840 to 1918, examined how the isolation of the bush and
the mass slaughter of young men in World War I forged uniquely
Australian pragmatic and secular responses to death and
bereavement.

"But," says Professor Jalland, "this has also led to generations
of a chronic suppression of grief and silence about death, from
which we have only begun to recover in the last two decades."

As a result, the funeral industry was almost given a de facto
licence to be secretive. What does the industry provide and what
are the true costs?

Jalland says initially undertakers were builders, carpenters and
joiners who provided this additional service to further their line
of work in the 1800s. Between the world wars, undertakers began
taking over more aspects of the preparation of the dead and to
refer to themselves as funeral directors to create an aura of
professionalism.

At the same time, doctors were becoming more successful in
prolonging life, increasingly in hospital settings. Only in the
past two decades in Australia, and partly as a result of the
hospice movement, have people started to talk more openly about
death and dying.

So what sort of funerals do Australians want? And are more
regulations needed to ensure the industry better addresses
consumers' needs? State government inquiries in Victoria and NSW
are looking into these issues.

In December 2003, after a series of consumer complaints, the
then Victorian Minister for Consumer Affairs, John Lenders,
referred the regulation of the funeral industry for examination by
the Family and Community Development Committee. A total of 35
submissions have been received. The tabling of the report has been
delayed, but the chairman of the committee, Bob Smith, told The
Sunday Age that it would take place next month.

In NSWthe inquiry is looking at competition and escalating costs
in the funeral industry. The Victorian inquiry is focusing on the
nature and extent of the perceived problems in the funeral industry
by assessing the adequacy of self-regulation and the existing
legislation.

The Australian Funeral Directors Association (AFDA) was
established in 1935 and is the peak body of the Australian funeral
industry. Its members conduct two out of three funerals in
Australia each year.

Martin Tobin presented the association's submission to the
committee, stating at the outset that "it has long been the view of
the AFDA that the funeral industry in Victoria should be
regulated". But, he said, "we don't believe that regulation is
needed in relation to advertising and pricing practices".

Camberwell couple Judy and Ed would beg to differ. These issues
affected their experience of organising Ed's mother's funeral.
Their journey into the labyrinth of the funeral industry started at
4am on a Sunday last December when Ed's 76-year-old mother died at
Epworth Hospital.

When trying to place a death notice, they were told they had to
immediately nominate a funeral director (to prevent hoaxes). Judy
thought of Le Pine in Camberwell, and The Age gave her the
company's after-hours number. "I heard myself saying over the phone
to Le Pine, 'I would like to speak to a member of your staff
tomorrow about planning a funeral'. Apparently that was all they
needed to use as my authority for their company to collect the
body."

The next day, the consultant went through all the elements of
putting together a funeral and gave Judy and Ed (who asked that
their surnames be withheld) an estimate of costs. These costs were
broken down: $226.95 for the funeral notice, including a large Le
Pine advertisement; $330 for floral tributes; $295 for tea, coffee,
sandwiches and biscuits; $300 for the celebrant; and $51.50 for the
medical certificate.

There was also a $640 transfer fee from Epworth, presumably to
one of Le Pine's three mortuaries (St Kilda, Box Hill and Croydon),
then back to a cool room at the Camberwell branch, and then to the
Springvale Crematorium.

At the bottom of the list was Le Pine's fee of $2200. Ed asked,
"If these services have extra charges, what exactly does the Le
Pine fee cover?" It appeared to cover liaison duties. It included
the personal consultation regarding funeral arrangements (for Judy
and Ed, about 1½ hours); responsibility for all details of the
service (estimated another 1½ hours); liaison (probably
several hours) with cemetery or crematorium (cemetery and
crematorium fees extra); registration of death (medical and death
certificates extra); consultation with clergy or celebrant (cost
extra); placement of press notices (notice cost extra); liaison
with florist (flowers extra); liaison with caterers, clubs and
other associations (Judy and Ed did this; refreshments extra); use
of chapel and private viewing facilities; assistance with grief
support.

"I had no idea whether this fee was reasonable or not," says Ed.
"We can advertise the price of a car, an accountant's hourly rate,
the rate of interest a bank will charge, so why can't we have the
recommended retail price of a funeral clearly and easily available
to consumers?"

The Victorian Government's submission to the funeral inquiry
made a similar point: "Itemised price information on goods and
services offered by funeral directors would allow consumers to make
better comparison between funeral directors in regard to price, and
make more informed choices about the goods and services they wish
to purchase."

However, the submissions by the funeral directors association
and the Australian Workers Union are more concerned about unethical
practices by certain funeral directors.

The call for greater regulation of the industry may surprise the
general public, who might have assumed that the funeral industry
operates within strict government regulations. There is, however,
remarkably little legislation governing the industry.

The funeral directors association is proposing that the
principal of a funeral firm needs to demonstrate that he or she is
a fit and proper person and has a minimum level of training. They
also propose that funeral firms need transport vehicles with roller
devices and coffin clamping facilities as well as cool-room body
storage facilities.

In justifying these recommendations, they gave six examples of
unprofessional practices related to a lack of these facilities.
None were from Victoria, some dated back to 1996.

The workers union submission (the main union of the funeral
industry) made similar claims about unprofessional practices in
support of its request for more regulation. The committee requested
the union substantiate its claims, and five funeral industry
employees gave graphic accounts of unhygienic working conditions in
mortuaries and excessive working hours due to staff reductions.
Three were from Le Pine, none were start-up companies.

Until 15 years ago, most funeral directors in Australia were
well-established, small-to-medium-sized, family-owned businesses,
passed from generation to generation. But in the 1990s, major US
companies started buying Australian funeral homes. This has had a
profound influence on how funerals are run in Australia.

The largest funeral company in the world, the Texas-based
Service Corporation International (SCI) bought up brands such as Le
Pine, Simplicity and White Lady, as well as numerous family-owned
companies (without changing their names).

Le Pine is listed on page 1279 in the Melbourne Yellow Pages.
The advertisement lists 15 funeral parlours and states that Le Pine
is a member of funeral directors association. But nowhere does it
state that Le Pine is part of the publicly listed company Invocare,
formally called Service Corporation International Australia (SCIA),
a branch of the US corporation, SCI.

Le Pine is the largest funeral provider in Australia, with 123
funeral parlours and 12 crematoriums and cemeteries. The national
brands Simplicity and White Lady, six Mulqueen parlours in
Melbourne, a couple of Tobin parlours in the ACT, Guardian and
Blackwell brands and a number of family-name funeral parlours in
other states are other Invocare brands. Invocare operates under 54
registered trading names in Australia.

In a December 2004 article, "The Monopolisation of the
Australian Funeral Industry", in the Journal of Australian
Political Economy, Dr Drew Cottle and PhD student Angela Keys,
describe how SCIA achieved its market dominance. "Between 1993 and
1998, the American corporation had invested $250 million in the
Australian operations," they write.

Two other US companies, Stewart Enterprises and Loewen, later
renamed the Alderwood Group, also made significant inroads into the
Australian funeral business. However, soon after the turn of the
century, the two smaller American companies pulled out of
Australia. In their wake, a number of new players entered the
market. In 2003, Macquarie Bank organised a joint venture of SCIA's
operations and the company name changed to Invocare. The company
controls 25 per cent of the Australian funeral market and is by far
the largest single entity.

None of this history is contained in the funeral directors
association report. Of the current situation, it states: "Today the
funeral industry in Melbourne, and also in many Victorian regional
centres, is highly fragmented and competitive."

According to Jalland, the entry of a large US corporation
changed the culture of funeral businesses in Australia by showing
the Australian companies how they could make greater profit.

The Funeral Directors' Association was "completely comfortable
with this increased level of competiton", Mr Tobin told the inquiry
as it was "good for consumers".

However, he warned, "intense competition can also be detrimental
to customers, particularly in industries like ours that lack
regulation or active consumer scrutiny".

SIMON Mulqueen is managing director of Mulqueen Family
Funeral Directors in Bendigo, and the founder of the 25-member
owner-operated companies of the Victorian Independent Funeral
Directors Association (VIFD), which services communities throughout
metropolitan, regional and rural Victoria.

In his association report to the committee inquiry, Mulqueen
stated: "Our members go above and beyond to help in our local
communities. We are concerned that the extremely small number of
complaints lodged each year against operators in our industry
 52 complaints in the past five years out of more than
150,000 funerals conducted  does not justify the call for
some form of regulation in the Victorian funeral industry. Those
pushing for licensing have an agenda that is more about monopolies
and profit than it is about the best interest of Victorian
families."

Terry Crawford, of the independent Charles Crawford and Sons in
Newcomb, told the inquiry: "It is professed that we can save you
money by being big. It seems to be the other way around in the
funeral industry, where big allows you to charge more."

So what is a fair price for a coffin? This is difficult to
ascertain because the public does not have direct access to coffin
manufacturers, who sell wholesale to funeral parlours. There are
four coffin manufacturers in Melbourne. When contacted by The
Sunday Age, none would say how much their coffins sold for
retail.

One of the few people willing to talk about coffin mark-ups is
Keith Russell, chief executive of Sensible Funerals in Adelaide.
Russell entered the funeral business 25 years ago. In November 1979
he performed his first Simplicity funeral for $396, and the whole
business took off because of his down-to-earth approach and
disclosure of funeral charges.

Eventually, SCI bought the Simplicity business. After a
non-compete period, he started Sensible Funerals in 2000. Today, he
performs all-inclusive cremations for $3250, with a chipboard
internal coffin, an exterior coffin that is re-used, and silk
rather than fresh flowers.

Says Russell, "More than 50 per cent of the coffins used in
cremations at the Springvale Necropolis are chipboard with a
lacquered paper-like surface that can be finished to look like
anything from light oak to rosewood.

"Traditional funeral parlours would buy these from suppliers for
no more than $200 (less if they were a large company, such as
Invocare, that could place bulk orders). They will sell this to a
grieving member of the public for up to $900. That is at least a
400 per cent mark-up."

In Ed's case, one of his mother's last wishes was "not to waste
my hard-earned money. I want you to get the cheapest coffin
available. Bury me in a cardboard box," Ed recalls. "When Le Pine
showed me their coffin catalogue, I asked, 'Where is the page for
cardboard coffins', and I was told that they were against the
health regulations."

Judy and Ed chose the cheapest coffin available. It was
lacquered chipboard with plastic handles. The cost: $780.

There is nothing in the Cemeteries Act that says cardboard
coffins are illegal. It merely states that the receptacle must be
of a solid construction and emit no noxious gases or liquids.

Two companies in Australia produce cardboard coffins. Chris
Williams of My Way Funerals is a colleague of Russell of Sensible
Funerals. She decided to offer cardboard coffins for cost and
environmental reasons and approached a cardboard manufacturer to
cut cardboard to a specified shape. It takes her 20 minutes to
assemble the coffin and it costs $30. These cardboard coffins are
only for sale with Williams' all-inclusive cremations for $2800 and
they are inserted into an outer re-useable wooden coffin.

Sydney-based LifeArt Australia has developed a range of
stand-alone cardboard coffins (in basic, decorate your own, and
premium options) that have been approved in the past six months by
an independent testing authority for use in the funeral
industry.

Director Eckhard Kemmerer says the coffins are now available in
30 funeral parlours in NSW and Queensland, with plans to expand to
Victoria in the next couple of months.

At the end of the day, says Ed, consumers can only make
an assessment of what is a reasonable charge for a funeral when
there is greater transparency.

"I don't have any problem with funeral parlours making a
profit," he says.

Judy and Ed ended up with a successful funeral for Ed's mother.
They were happy with the celebrant, the flowers and the
refreshments. They declined many of the add-ons.

"I'm not complaining about the funeral, the consultant or Le
Pine," says Ed. "The issue is at an industry level and that issue
is an absence of transparency which seems to be deliberately
designed to limit genuine competition and limit choice." For Ed,
the total cost was $6254.89.

People are under great stress and time pressure when organising
a funeral, and they neither exhibit normal consumer behaviour at
the time nor do they want to revisit the problems they might have
had in dealing with funeral parlours.

According to the Victorian All of Government Submission:
"Relative to other industries, the funeral industry has weak
demand-side pressure to drive competition because consumers in the
funeral market undertake less product exploration and choice."

In dealing with funeral directors while under duress,, people
can be forgiven for confusing expressions of grief with succumbing
to encouragements to commodify death.

As Cottle and Keys said in their paper about the funeral
industry last year: "The bereaved are encouraged to show respect
for the dead by not being cheap. An expensive coffin, embalming,
flowers, hearses, headstones, and urns are proffered by SCIA (aka
Invocare) as symbols of respect for the departed."

Says Jalland, "The industry has been open to frequent claims of
corruption and overcharging, though official inquiries have several
times exonerated it.

"However, the current inquiries into the developments of the
last decade might well be more critical given the scale of the
profits, the size of the conglomerates and the 'delicate' nature of
the business."